What I Wish I Would Have Known about Equity and Wealth Creation

By Sara Holoubek (Founder & CEO, Luminary Labs)
I’ll get right to the point. I believe strongly in intentional conversations, and it is high time that we have an intentional conversation about equity.

As others have noted, we are in the midst of a revolution, and women are taking to entrepreneurship in unprecedented numbers. Newly inspired, they line up for classes on user experience, product management and installing a web framework.

The current conversation is ebullient, and there is endless knowledge sharing around mentorship, perseverance, gender parity, and work-life balance.

So why is it that we aren’t having a conversation about the mechanics of wealth creation?

The most frequent response is “I don’t do this for the money. If you follow your passion, money will come.’ In many cases this is true. And yet it is not a valid argument for remaining ignorant about how wealth is created. Or in many cases, lost.

So it is with great pleasure that invite the Women 2.0 community to join Kathy Leake, Hayley Barna, and Jeanne Sullivan in an intentional conversation in about equity on September 1 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at the Chelsea Market New York offices of YEXT. RSVP is required. Tickets are tax-deductible, as all funds will benefit Step Up (Let’s pay it forward for the next generation.)

We will explore the topic from 3 perspectives:

the start-up founder

the C-level employee

the investor

The end goal is to equip you with the knowledge you need to create wealth. We will get specific, sharing experience on subjects such as taking money off the table, fair market value, tax implications, single vs. double trigger acceleration, and so on. Given the sensitive nature of the topic, confidentiality will be respected when sharing stories at the event. (What gets said in the room, stays in the room.)

To ensure that we are covering the topics most needed by the startup community, we are crowdsourcing questions and shared experiences via this link. There is no question too big or too small. The more we know about your needs, the more likely it is that we can help you.

Step Up Women’s Network is a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to connecting and advancing women and girls. By bridging communities of professional women and underserved teen girls through mentorship, networking and advancement, we ensure women and girls have the opportunities they need to create a better future.Editor’s note: Got a question for our guest blogger? Leave a message in the comments below.About the guest blogger: Sara Holoubek is Founder and CEO of Luminary Labs. Prior to Luminary Labs, Sara served as iCrossing’s Chief Strategy Officer, building the firm’s New York office and repositioning the iCrossing brand as it raised an early VC round of $13 million. Prior to this experience, Sara held strategy roles with interactive agencies Organic and Blue Dingo. She serves on the New York Board of Directors of the Step Up Women’s Network. Sara holds a BA from the University of Iowa and an MBA from HEC in France. Follow her on Twitter at @sarita.

Given the sensitive nature of the topic and the fact that we will be sharing our in-the-trenches stories, we have promised participants that everything would be “off the record.” Therefore, streaming is probably not ideal for this first activity.
So how might we share the learnings? We do envision a “cheat sheet,” as well as a framework for other cities to replicate and evolve the event.

Given the sensitive nature of the topic and the fact that we will be sharing our in-the-trenches stories, we have promised participants that everything would be “off the record.” Therefore, streaming is probably not ideal for this first activity.

So how might we share the learnings? We do envision a “cheat sheet,” as well as a framework for other cities to replicate and evolve the event.